Alarm-Bell Moment for CMOs

As the world keeps changing, demanding new skill sets from professionals, a new report by Oracle and ADMA declared, “Finance, analytics and budgeting are among the top skills CMOs must cultivate in order to retain their positions as executive leaders of tomorrow.” The report, titled The CMO of Tomorrow, surveyed 450 senior marketing executives across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and India.

Oracle Marketing Cloud VP, Customer Success, Paul Cross said, “The research shows that significant impediments stand in the way of accelerating the rollout of digital marketing … There is lack of education about digital marketing capabilities, which makes it hard for marketers to understand ROI.”

The joint research probed into retail, travel & hospitality and financial services as key verticals. It was discovered that marketers in travel & hospitality are the most confident about using analytics. In the retail space however, lack of education about digital marketing capabilities was evident across regions.

Marketing leadership is becoming commercially driven and 62% of the survey’s respondents revealed they had specific revenue requirements in their KPIs. Among all the countries surveyed, Australia emerged the most educated and capable when it came to digital analytics in today’s world. Decision-making abilities, evidence-based influencing skills and resource allocation emerged as areas that Australian marketing professionals were able to endure more successfully than other countries.

The three main impediments marketers face in today’s digital world included budget (50%), capability & knowledge (48%), and justifying their ROIs (37%). Financial analytics in marketing requires a high level of data integration and consistency. Superior technology capabilities can make a difference for the better anywhere in the world. It is hardly surprising that with progress in capabilities, marketers are expected to improve their reports and focus on tangible results more confidently.